Bauernschnapsen

Players and equipment

Four players, in two fixed partnerships — you and the player across the table are partners for as long as the match runs. Deal and play move clockwise. The pack is just twenty cards: the ace, ten, king, queen and jack of each suit, French or German suited. Learn the ranking once and you have it for good — ace, ten, king, queen, jack, high to low — and each card carries its own value in card points: ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2.

The deal

The dealer shuffles and the player to their right either cuts the pack or simply knocks on it instead. A cut deal goes out in two rounds — three cards each, then two more each — and forehand, the player to the dealer's left, must name trumps after seeing only the first three. Choose a suit you hold at least one card of. If none of your first three will do, call "Aufschlagen" and the dealer turns one of your last two cards face up at random; its suit is trumps. A knocked deal goes out five at a time, but forehand's first three are still dealt apart from the last two, for the same choice.

Play

Before a card is led, the table bids for the right to set the contract. Forehand opens the bidding and may not pass — only name a normal game in the trump suit already chosen, or reach for something higher. Bidding passes clockwise, each player passing or naming a contract — higher than the last, or the same one if they sit earlier in the priority order below — until three have passed and the fourth plays the contract they last named.

The contracts

Normal game

1–3

forehand bids it; the first side to 66 card points in tricks and marriages wins it

Bettler

4

declarer must lose every trick; their partner sits out the hand

Schnapser

6

forehand or forehand's partner must personally win the first three tricks and hold 66+ points in them

Gang (or Ring)

9

declarer must win all five tricks, with no trumps in play

Zehner-Gang

10

as Gang, but every suit ranks ten-king-queen-jack-ace for the hand

Kontra-Schnapser

12

an opponent of forehand plays the Schnapser instead

Bauern-Schnapser

12

forehand or forehand's partner, as declarer, must win all five tricks, with trumps in play

Farben-Gang (or Farben-Ring)

18

declarer holds all five cards of one suit

Kontra-Bauern-Schnapser

24

an opponent of forehand plays the Bauern-Schnapser

Herren-Schnapser

24

forehand holds all five trumps in hand

Some contracts belong to particular seats: only forehand may bid the normal game or a Herren-Schnapser, only forehand or forehand's partner a Schnapser or Bauern-Schnapser, and anyone but forehand a Farben-Gang.

Priority at the table runs forehand, dealer's partner, forehand's partner, dealer, so a tie between two bids of the same contract goes to whoever sits earlier in that order. Once three players have passed, either opponent of the declarer may say "Kontra" to double the stakes; the declarer's side may answer "Rekontra" to double again, and either opponent may go once more with "Subkontra." Nobody bothers doubling once a win already carries the game past 24.

Winning a trick

When the contract has trumps, forehand leads to the first trick; in a Bettler, Gang or Zehner-Gang there are no trumps and the declarer leads. Follow suit if you can, and beat the highest card in the trick so far if you're able to — even when the card to beat is your own partner's. Short of the suit led, you must trump; already trumped and still unable to follow suit, you must trump higher if you can, and lower if you can't. With neither the suit nor a trump in hand, throw anything.

Marriages

Hold the king and the queen of a suit, lead one of the pair to a trick, and show the other still in hand — that declares a marriage, worth 40 card points in trumps or 20 in any other suit. Forehand can do this on the very first trick; anyone else must first win a trick of their own before leading the second half of a marriage. In a Schnapser or Kontra-Schnapser, only the declarer's marriages ever score — a partner's intact king-queen counts for nothing there.

Scoring

The target is 24 game points, and the first side to reach it wins the match. A normal game pays 1, 2 or 3 points depending on how little the other side managed: 1 if they took 33 or more card points, 2 if they took at least a trick but fewer than 33, 3 if they took no trick at all. Say "enough" the moment your side has 66 in hand and the deal stops there; claim short of 66 and the other side scores what you would have won. Every other contract pays what the table above says to the declarer's side if it makes and to the other side if it fails, and any contract, the normal game included, is doubled for a Kontra, doubled again for a Rekontra and once more for a Subkontra.

A round on the sheet is one deal. Enter the game points your side earned into your own column once the hand is settled — the host can fix either column if a tap goes wrong — and the other side enters 0, a deal that scored nothing. SquareScores deals nothing and never sees a card: the bidding, the marriages and every Kontra happen at the table, and the sheet only ever wants the number a deal is worth once it is over. The line sits at 24; reach it and the match banks itself.

A worked deal

North-South hold hearts as trumps and win a normal game, claiming "enough" with 66 card points banked in tricks and a declared marriage. East-West have taken two tricks worth 21 card points between them before the claim — a trick, but well short of 33.

North-South's claim

66

66+ card points reached in tricks and one marriage

East-West's tricks

21

two tricks taken, 21 card points

Game points earned

2

a trick taken, but fewer than 33 card points

North-South enter 2 in their own column; East-West enter 0.

Ending

A normal-game deal ends the moment either side claims "enough" at 66, or at the last trick if nobody has claimed — the side that wins that last trick takes a single game point regardless of the card count. Every other contract ends the instant it is decided: a Schnapser or Kontra-Schnapser is lost the moment anyone but the declarer, partner included, takes one of the first three tricks; a Bettler is lost the moment the declarer takes a trick, and a Gang, Zehner-Gang, Bauern-Schnapser or Kontra-Bauern-Schnapser the moment the declarer loses one; each is made on the fifth trick. The match itself ends the moment a side's total reaches 24, and the app banks it there. Tables that also keep a Bummerl — a mark for the losing side, doubled if they finished on no game points at all — note that by hand; the sheet only ever counts game points toward the line.

Read the bidding before you look at your own hand twice

Every bid tells you something nobody meant to say. A Gang bid says the bidder trusts their hand with no trumps at all; a Kontra-Schnapser says an opponent of forehand fancies winning the first three tricks outright. Count backwards from the final contract and you already know more about the other hands than you're entitled to.

Decide early whether to let a Bettler through

A Bettler's declarer leads first and is trying to lose every trick, and the must-beat rule is your weapon: lead low cards in suits the declarer still holds, so they are forced to play over you, and keep your high cards to drop under their leads. Leading a suit they are out of only lets them throw away whatever they like.

Guard a marriage you haven't declared yet

A king-queen still in your hand is forty card points waiting to be shown. Don't lead the queen on its own to test the water; once it's gone the marriage is gone with it, and an opponent who holds the other half of a suit you've broken up will never let you complete it.

Count the trumps as they fall

With only five of each suit in the pack, four trumps played leaves exactly one unaccounted for. Forehand especially should be tracking this from the first trick — it tells you whether your last trump is still a trick-winner or already beaten.

Weigh a Kontra against the game, not just the hand

Doubling a contract you expect to beat is free money, but only if beating it doesn't also hand the other side the game outright on the rebound — a Rekontra you didn't see coming turns a safe double into a bad one at 18 points from the line.

No Bettler at the table

Some circles drop the Bettler contract entirely, which shortens the bidding ladder by one rung and removes the only contract where a player's own partner sits out the hand.

A softer Bettler

Where Bettler stays, tables often ease it: cards sometimes rank ace-king-queen-jack-ten instead of the usual order, the contract is sometimes worth 5 game points rather than 4, and some let the declarer's partner stay in the play rather than sitting out. A few tables also let an opponent's Kontra on the normal game override an announced Bettler outright, forcing forehand back to the normal game.

As-Bettler

An extra contract some tables add above the ordinary Bettler, worth 5 game points: the same objective, but the declarer must hold at least one ace. A player who would rather hide the ace can still bid the ordinary Bettler instead.

No Zehner-Gang, or a cheaper one

Some tables leave the Zehner-Gang out altogether; others keep it but rank it below the ordinary Gang and pay 8 or 9 game points for it rather than 10.

Three players instead of four

Talon-Schnapsen is a three-handed relative, where the declarer plays alone against the other two in temporary partnership, dealt with a two-card talon the declarer may pick up. It changes the deal and the partnerships enough to be its own game rather than a variation of this one, and this row is not set up to score it.

How many cards are in a Bauernschnapsen pack?

Twenty: the ace, ten, king, queen and jack of each of the four suits. Nothing below a jack is used.

How do you win a hand of Bauernschnapsen?

By winning the contract your side bid. In the ordinary normal game that means reaching 66 card points — from tricks won and any marriages declared — before the other side does; a Schnapser or Kontra-Schnapser needs 66 too, but in the first three tricks and all won by the declarer; the other contracts are won on tricks alone, or, for a Farben-Gang or Herren-Schnapser, on the cards held.

What is a marriage in Bauernschnapsen?

Holding the king and queen of a suit and leading one of them to a trick while the other is still in your hand. It scores 40 card points in trumps or 20 in any other suit, counts only in the normal game, the Schnapser and the Kontra-Schnapser, and in either Schnapser only the declarer's marriages count.

What does Kontra mean?

An opponent of the declarer doubling the game points at stake once the bidding has settled. The declarer's side can answer with a Rekontra to double again, and either opponent can go once more with a Subkontra — though nobody bothers once the game is already won.

Can you play Bauernschnapsen with three players?

Not this version. Talon-Schnapsen is a genuine three-handed form with its own talon and its own partnerships, close enough in spirit to share the name but different enough in its deal to be a separate game.

What is a Bummerl?

A mark some tables keep by hand for the losing side when a game ends — a blob in their column, doubled if they finished with no game points at all. The app's line only tracks game points to 24; a table that also wants Bummerl marks is keeping those on paper alongside it.